Upgrading Speakers....

JAKD-UP · January 28, 2008

I have a 07 z71 nbs Silverado and I have been thinking about upgrading to aftermarket speakers. I have had amps and subs before but my car got broken into a couple of months ago and they stole all that. I don't want to run the risk again and really I've kinda grown out of that bumping phase. Would buying aftermarket speakers/tweeters to replace the stock ones be a waste of money? I know in the past aftermarket was always better than stock. Has that changed in recent years? My truck isn't equipped witht he bose system fyi. Thanks!

pentavolvo · January 28, 2008

my buddy has an 07 with bose and we recently replaced all stock speakers with components front and back because we plan on amping soon. over the stock bose clarity was much improved, much smoother sounding. a worthy upgrade IMO

conrad1995 · January 28, 2008

I have a 07 z71 nbs Silverado and I have been thinking about upgrading to aftermarket speakers. I have had amps and subs before but my car got broken into a couple of months ago and they stole all that. I don't want to run the risk again and really I've kinda grown out of that bumping phase. Would buying aftermarket speakers/tweeters to replace the stock ones be a waste of money? I know in the past aftermarket was always better than stock. Has that changed in recent years? My truck isn't equipped witht he bose system fyi. Thanks!

IF you want to keep your stock head unit you have two routes. The easiset is to replace the stock speakers. Chances are most anything you pick up from a *.mart store will sound better.

The other is to add an amplifier with cross over and a sub to take the stress of the bass off the stock speakers, while increasing the power to the stock speakers. I have seen this done on many trucks/cars, and have done it on my car. Amazing what you can get out of the stocks with a little more power, and removing the bass.

My truck has a whole new system. Pioneer Head Unit, Fusion 5 chanel amp & sub, and alpines in all four doors. But it's older, the stock radio was gone and had a low-end head unit. I've kinda been spoiled on subs, since I like the sound quality they add. Not a thumper by any means, but if I want to crank something, I can without distorting everything.

Could not for the life of me believe I was getting any sound when I saw the stock speakers they took out.

conrad1995 · January 28, 2008

my buddy has an 07 with bose and we recently replaced all stock speakers with components front and back because we plan on amping soon. over the stock bose clarity was much improved, much smoother sounding. a worthy upgrade IMO

Speakers really are the best place to start especially when your gonna amp it up. I left my stock speakers in my car because I had free Sirrius and wasn't ready to swap out the head unit. Don't care for the sirrius sound quality at all, so since I already have the amp & sub, next will speakers. The stock head unit actually does a good job on high bit rate mp3s and cds, but the sirrius and fm suck! Either the same time as the speakers or shortly thereafter the head unit is going so I'll have some pre-outs instead of the line level converter.

JAKD-UP · January 28, 2008

Thanks guys...yeah I would like to keep my HU and I guess I just need to replace the stocks and then go from there if I wanna do anymore. Any suggestiosn on brands? In my old Silverado I had Infinity's and they were awesome! But that has been like 10 years ago. I have tried Sony stuff and that was a waste of money!

jenricco · January 28, 2008

If you are just going to keep stock, then I recommend just buying some low wattage coaxial speakers. They have nice sound quality without amping. If you go with an aftermarket cd player, then I would buy a component system for the front and amp it. Then I would replace the back with bass blockers..... Nicer than bose!

mldennisgmt · January 30, 2008

Thanks guys...yeah I would like to keep my HU and I guess I just need to replace the stocks and then go from there if I wanna do anymore. Any suggestiosn on brands? In my old Silverado I had Infinity's and they were awesome! But that has been like 10 years ago. I have tried Sony stuff and that was a waste of money!

I am wanting to at the very least keep my HU and swap out speakers. It would be nice to add an amp or two off the HU in the future.

The problem that I have heard about is the ohm output from the stock amp is not compatible with any speakers that you can buy. The bose system from HU to amp to speakers works as a system but is not very friendly to changing the amp or speakers. The installers that I have talked to seem to think that there will need to be some kind of Peripheral Electronics interface piece hooked to the HU and go from there. When I got my truck last September, this piece was not available yet. I just checked the PE website and could not find anything that would fit this bill.

--Michael

pentavolvo · January 31, 2008

i recommend the polk DB's. as far as diff ohm my buddy had bose system we swapped speakers and it hasnt been an issue at all and he has it cranked all the time

JAKD-UP · January 31, 2008

Yeah alot of people seem to like polk db's. I've been considering Infinity's along with Kenwood. But I know there are some others out there. I do know that I don't care for Kicker or Sony stuff at all. So many to choose from?!?!

-db · January 31, 2008

One thing that waill really help, even stock speakers is sound deadening your doors. There are a buch of write ups on it around.

JAKD-UP · January 31, 2008

Good point! I completely fogot about that.

BigDogg795 · February 3, 2008

Take a look also at the Infinity's that are 2 ohm...technically, they are 2.8 Ohm, but you should be able to pull a little more power out of the HU...I have them installed with my Alpine HU, but even when I had the factory HU, they sounded great!

RB Racing · February 6, 2008

Here's my install.

Speaker upgrade

mnmsmith · February 10, 2008

I am looking to do something similar. I had planned to put everything I pulled from my Titan in this truck, but now I'm not so sure I want to for a few reasons, but I want nice clean sound, so I'm going to be reading more here to find out what I can do with my new Sierra. I have an Alpine HU, two JL Audio Amps, two JL Audio 10" subs, Focal 6.5" components for the front, and Focal 6.5" coaxial for the rear. Now I know for better sound I should replace the factory HU, but I'm inclined to try and work with the factory HU. I don't have the Bose system, but I do have the 'upgraded' 6-disc changer with MP3 capability.

Can the factory HU power the Focal's without an amp (doubt it can that well)?

Can an amp be hooked to the factory HU (RB Racing - I read in your post there was an adapter to do this)?

If the factory HU can connect to external amps with an adapter, how many amps can you connect?

Does anyone have experience with the Personal Audio Link (PAL) for the iPod?

I hope my questions did not hijack the thread, but I felt starting a new thread would be redundant.

Thanks,

Mike

pentavolvo · February 11, 2008

You can hook up as many amps as you want. Stock radio will power components just not well. Right now my buddy has his polk components on the bose amp and it works, but sat his new radio and 4ch are goin in